AMA airs concerns on govt-backed health plans

The American Medical Association said it opposes a government-backed health insurance options that set payments rates in law based on Medicares reimbursement schedule, adding that it is also against proposals that would restrict which patients a doctor can and cannot see.

Several of those options are now being mulled by lawmakers on Capitol Hill as part of a broader effort to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system.

In written testimony submitted to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and slated to be delivered today, the AMA said it does not think that a public health plan for those outside of Medicare is the best way to expand health insurance coverage and lower costs across the healthcare system.

AMA board member Samantha Rosman, one of two dozen invited speakers scheduled to appear before the HELP committee, is expected to deliver the testimony. Other speakers include Delos Toby Cosgrove, president and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic; Brent James, chief quality officer and executive director of the Institute for Health Care Delivery Research at Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare; and Chip Kahn, president of the Federation of American Hospitals.

According to one healthcare lobbyist, the issue for the AMA centers on payments. A government-backed plan would likely pay for procedures based on Medicare and Medicaid rates that physicians already say are too low.

The call for a public option plan has threatened to stall the health reform effort. For weeks, Democrats who are writing the bill, and Republicans who want to shape it, have been at loggerheads over proposals that would effectively create a government plan that would compete with private insurers.

On Wednesday, a proposal by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) that would clear the way for plans styled upon "co-ops" gained steam among members from both parties, though no single option has been decided yet.

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